


Step Aside

by LuminaFaith



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Angsty shouting, Battle, Crimson Flower Route, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Leonie not recruited, Mentioned Jeralt Reus Eisner, Mentioned Rhea, and the possible lack thereof, war zone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22336267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuminaFaith/pseuds/LuminaFaith
Summary: Five years and five days. That's one thousand, eight hundred and thirty days since Jeralt died. Seeing Leonie at the Myrddin Bridge has just reminded Byleth of the short months she had to mourn, and Leonie isn't making it any easier.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	Step Aside

"Professor!" Byleth's head snapped up at the voice, sidestepping some debris to confirm the speaker. At the other end of the bridge stood Leonie, perched high atop a horse and dressed in painfully familiar colours. Grief pierced at her heart at the sight of the former student mimicking Jeralt's outfit before it twisted with anger. Those had been her father's colours and _nobody_ who knew him should have the right to parade around in them. 

Someone moved behind her and the quiet clunking of armoured boots signalled Edelgard's approach. "Professor? You don't have to face her if you don't want to." The empress briefly touched her shoulder comfortingly, but the rolling waves of anger seemed to reject her gesture. Byleth lifted her hand to point off toward the force pushing towards Judith, and, after a brief moment of hesitation, Edelgard complied with the silent order. The sound of her movements quickly faded into the din of battle.

Byleth slipped past the other members of the strike force, trying not to focus on their looks of sympathy–or perhaps it was pity–and concern as she made her way towards the edge of their forces. Her cape fluttered with her movements as she came to a stop in front of the others and she mildly wondered if the army could spare the materials to change her clothing's colour. _At the very least, the white cape has to go,_ she thought, disgust mingling with her anger. _It's too similar to the Archbishop's._

"Leonie," she called, politely nodding at the woman. She'd changed so much in five years, just as everyone else had, and yet her fixation on the late captain never seemed to disappear. Her face seemed fuller and she'd let her hair grow out a bit, but there was a hardness in her posture that must have been achieved from half a decade of conflict. Byleth forced her thoughts back to the matters at hand and she opened her mouth again, only to be cut off.

"You know Captain Jeralt's killer was connected to the Empire!" Leonie shouted and the older woman could hear the turmoil of emotions in her voice; rage, betrayal, disbelief, confusion, and perhaps some guilt, but over which events, Byleth couldn't tell. Leonie's face contorted to reflect her emotions and she pointed her lance at her in accusation. "Why did you side with them?! Answer me, traitor!"

"You think I don't want to kill the people responsible?" Byleth let her gaze rest on a stone tile between them, but the orange blob refused to leave her vision. Hubert's words echoed in her head, temporarily filling the empty space once occupied by a little girl. "Do you honestly think that I _want_ to work with them?"

Leonie was likely shouting back a reply, but she didn't care to hear her words. "Do you think you're the only one haunted by his death?" Her voice was rising now, but she kept her eyes firmly on the ground as if doing so would allow her some measure of control. "You had five years to mourn. I had three _months_ of waking up with the feeling of his blood on my hands and his face while he said he was sorry!" She could feel her eyes start to prick with tears and she reflexively blinked them away; her father had always told her, to some useless effect back then, that crying was not a way to win a battle. "Ninety-six days. That's all I had. I counted ninety-six days where I was able to visit his grave and say that _I'm_ the one who should be apologizing."

"Professor, I..." Leonie's voice seemed far away, more subdued than it had been moments ago. Was she so shocked by her former teacher's confession that she had no words? 

"You- You weren't _there._ " Byleth spat out the last word, finally wrenching her gaze up to meet Leonie's, who looked taken aback by the contempt on her face. Her voice wavered as she forced out the one thought that she had only shared with Sothis, the only person who had truly known her. "There is no amount of rain that can wash his blood off my hands. Sometimes, I wish to leave this all behind because I couldn't save him just like how he saved me every damn time."

Her grip tightened on the hilt of her sword and the anger crashed against her mind in waves. "You asked me why I'm with the Empire?" A short bark of laughter escaped her lips, drowned by the battle in the distance but somehow echoing in the silence surrounding the two of them. "Because that group of killers killed Jeralt to get to _me._ "

Leonie's brow furrowed in confusion as she tried to make sense of Byleth's words, but the older woman gave her no chance to voice her thoughts. "Solon called me the Fell Star and he had Jeralt killed to lure me to the forest so he could banish me. _I_ was his ultimate goal and Jeralt was just an opportunity." Byleth threw her hand up to point at her opponent. "And it's Rhea's fault that I'm like this. It's all her fault that Solon and Kronya targeted Jeralt because they wanted me!"

"B-But how? How is it Lady Rhea's fault?" The young knight said, sounding less angry than before.

"Rhea is the reason I'm an abomination!" Byleth snapped, jerking a finger at her green hair, which seemed to glow in the evening light. Her heart clenched painfully as her vision flickered briefly to an empty space occupied by a single throne. "She gave me a voice I never asked for, and then took it away from me for good. She's _responsible_ for everything that went wrong in my life and my father's! I wouldn't even be surprised if she's the reason why Jeralt even met my mother in the first place."

"Your false prophet is the reason why my mother is resting in a grave and why Jeralt is there beside her! She told him and me that my mother died giving birth to me and begged Rhea to save me instead. Do you know all the things she's been feeding us and the entire world? Can you imagine how many of them were lies?" She took a few steps towards Leonie, making the knight pull back on her horse's reigns. Her voice dropped in volume and her gaze intensified on Leonie's face. "If Rhea told you that Jeralt was a traitor to her precious church by taking his only child away in the middle of the night for their safety, would you believe her?"

Byleth watched Leonie shift uncomfortably in her saddle. "You want to know why I'm supporting the Empire? It's because Edelgard wants to take Rhea down, and I want to be right there when it happens." She raised her sword and pointed it at Leonie, watching it glow with power. "And once Rhea is dealt with, I swear that I will hunt each and every member of the group that killed my father and cut down anyone who stands in my way."

"So, Leonie," she continued, eyes narrowing as she assumed a fighting stance. Even though a storm of emotions raged on in the knight's eyes, Byleth knew what answer she was going to give. "Are you going to move or not?"

**Author's Note:**

> Catch me frantically cross-referencing the dates and calendars to figure out how long it's been. Ending left ambiguous for ambiguous reasons!


End file.
